Institutional Corruption, Commercial Science, and Agricultural Research at Land-Grant Universities

Institutional corruption refers to policies and practices that systematically divert an institution and the people within that institution from its intended purpose. It is different from individual corruption because it... [ view full abstract ]

Institutional corruption refers to policies and practices that systematically divert an institution and the people within that institution from its intended purpose. It is different from individual corruption because it recognizes that the diversion could be driven by incentives and collective motivations that are legal and not overtly unethical. Although federal, state, and university policies are promoting commercial science, some scholars claim that commercial science is corrupting public university research because it is systematically shifting the focus from the public interest to the private interest. Using a survey of agricultural scientists at all land-grant universities in the US, we explore how common commercial science is amongst agricultural scientists and whether this evidence indicates the emergence of institutional corruption.